Adventure-Chill with eco-cabins close to home | Reinier van der Veeken from Tur Experiences

Reinier van der Veeken

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And backyard. I. I will answer yes To All these questions and that's the reason i started this pod. Podcast project which i call Roaming roots My name is Veslemøy Klavenes-Berge. I'm a sustainability advisor, geophysicist futurist List and travel enthusiastic and i'm a mother If you feel you are having many burning questions around this Topic i'm sure i have them as well Well, Through conversations With experts And from my own experiences i will do [00:01:00] my best to provide you. you and me with tips And tricks and actionable Annabelle advice and my aim is to empower Us to explore For The world leaving only positive footprints So. so let's do this In the last episode we talked about Asia. Asia. Today. We're not going that far. At least for me, who lives in Norway. Norway. My guest is on a mission to. Improve wellbeing and happiness of people and the planet. He strongly believes. In the values we get from spending time outdoors and also that.

We don't necessarily need to go that far. To have great. Travel experiences. Or to. Experiences as He calls his company So listen to this and join me in waiting in line for the opportunity to enjoy adventure and chill in a cabin near you

Veslemøy: So today's guest [: 00:02:00

reinier_1_04-27-2023_100702: Thank you so much. It's uh, it's really amazing to be here and thanks for the invitation.

could join me in my, what I [: 00:03:00

reinier_1_04-27-2023_100702: Yeah, yeah. I'm, I'm currently based in, in, or I live, uh, not based anymore. I'm live in Oslo. Uh, in Norway. Um, beautiful place to live. And, but originally, as you say my name, especially my last name, gi, I'm from the Netherlands, born and raised there. Uh, my dad is Australian, so I'm actually half Dutch, half Australian, uh, and grew up, grew up in the Netherlands and, uh, studied international hospitality management in, uh, in the Netherlands.

that you mentioned. Starwood [: 00:04:00

So I had, uh, the pleasure and the luck in a way and, and maybe Preed in some extent to live in all these places and also travel a lot at the time in my early twenties. And that opened up my mind a lot.

Veslemøy: So, um, how did you end up in Oslo?

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You will love it. [00:05:00] And, uh, she was right though. But, uh, yeah, at some point during the pandemic we decided to move back. Um, and coincidentally we became parents in the pandemic. So that kind of spearheaded to move back to Norway for, for her end, for me, a new adventure. And, um, for the topic we're gonna talk about later, to your experience, this was also a perfect country to actually start the concept in.

Veslemøy: Yeah, so then you have to tell us about two experiences and, and you actually, you spell this t u r. So two in Norwegian is the name for journey. Two,

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Yeah.

Veslemøy: Yeah. so so why did

you start this and what, what is, what is your company about?

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And we do that by creating a, a platform with the collection of off-grid unique accommodations that we place temporary, uh, in adventures off-grid locations on landowners land so they can make an extra income. And we rent it out to promote responsible and regenerative tourism. And we, we start around Oslo with a two hour radius and try to find unique locations.

But we have also plans to go in other amazing locations along the west coast of Norway. Uh, as well as in other European locations in the future.

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It's, it's always, I think, hard to pinpoint an exact time and day. Like, oh, I woke up and I'm gonna create your experiences. Like that didn't really happen. [00:07:00] Um, I got, I got lucky to travel a lot on the African continent, and I've been supporting several, um, conservation and wildlife organizations in Africa for, for many, many years.

And during my travels there both for working for leisure, I fell in love with the African wildlife in the continent. And from that moment, I, I wrote a, actually on a piece of paper, I wrote a something called Norwegian Safaris, and I called it Nosa at the time. And this was 10 years ago. And at that time, I knew already my girlfriend's gonna pull me into Norway someday.

I just didn't know when. And, uh, I was like, okay, I gotta prepare for something, what I want to do there, where I can use my passion and my experience. So that, that piece of note was in my backpack for a long time. And, you know, I visited Norway many times and I really like to spend the time in nature outdoors.

later as well. Um, and, and [: 00:08:00

Where can I use my energy, my experience, my passion for. Something more where I can have a positive impact. Something where, where I can help, uh, not more, not just working for a co big corporation, uh, but where I can use my corporate work experience. Uh, also in combination with my passion and my experience.

So then I started to, to put a pen to paper down, and it, it started with the idea of just creating really exciting, cool cabins. Put them in h and rent them out to tourism. Just as simple as that. But then I also realized when we do that, we need to look at it holistically. We need to do it the right way.

ss resources, uh, et cetera. [: 00:09:00

And then the concept just took, took off. And uh, and now we, we are, uh, we have one location approved. We have two very exciting investors on board, and we're planning to get the first one open at by the end of this year.

Veslemøy: So, so could we touch on what you mentioned there about the Norwegian cabin life, uh, because as you say that it has a lot of positive sides to it, but also some negative, and so what are those and how do you. How, how are you working to, to go past those or do things differently?

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But on the other hand, the places where at least in the last 10, 20 years would've been building, they've been taking away so much land from mountainside Forest area has just been building villages where people spend one two weeks, a year in total, and the rest is empty and they've done full infrastructure work, et cetera.

So they basically, without pointing fingers to one another, but nature has been destroyed in many places. And I think one can do better by creating, uh, smaller cabins that you rent out. So peop so all people can use it in a way. And not just the privately private owner, but also the way you place it, the way you build it, the way you do the infrastructure around it.

have it built locally, local [: 00:11:00

But also under environment by not taking away too many new resources, which are gonna, which are scarce already.

Veslemøy: Hmm. Yeah. And if you compare it to the, I don't know if I should say normal, but many of the cabins that are being built, uh, Now and the last, the last years with Jas and all the, all the luxury and maybe also more than you would have at home. How, how are you thinking? It is a little bit more, uh, down to earth, isn't it?

The way that you're thinking? Yeah.

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It didn't have running water or electricity at the time. Right. And then you have your traditional heat grant, your large cabin area. We are in between. So we have the comfort of electricity through solar power, uh, and running water, but, We're in age and there's no one else around you. So we're away from everyone.

read a book in your ham, or [: 00:13:00

Veslemøy: So, so for the, for the international audience of this podcast, hopefully there's a lot out there listening. Uh, you mentioned that, uh, you will be, you'll start in Norway, but the plan is to do this in, in other locations as well out in the world. Right?

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We want that to, to happen with our concept as well. And if you take the trade or a bus or a car within two hours to get to the location, that's a great way to get there. Also during the week or over the weekend. But if you plan to have five hour [00:14:00] driving distance to get there, it's, it's kind of a little bit, a little bit challenging.

So we, we look, uh, we focus on Norway to start with, but definitely plans for a lot of European adventurous locations that we. Would like to, but that is, to be honest, probably five plus years away from

Veslemøy: Yeah. Yeah. It takes some time. So,

Recently you have been contributing to an academic publication called Critical Questions in Sustainability and Hospitality. So I believe we, you would have some opinions on the status of travel, tourism, and sustainability, and, and also with your, your, , international background coming from the Netherlands, living in Norway. And working many places. What, how, how do you see this space evolving, , with sustainability, travel, tourism, hospitality, how is the status?

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Veslemøy: Yeah. [00:15:00]

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question. Um, Let me, let me maybe break it down. In the last year, two years with when we were still in the pandemic, uh, as well, that made people realize that their backyard was actually very beautiful.

There were a lot of nice places to explore. Of course, they couldn't travel or most people couldn't travel outside of their countries, right? So they were forced in a way to travel their own country and explore it. And I think places like Norway are very lucky that they have an abundance of nature and beautiful places to explore that people don't even know about within two hours drive of O for example.

So I think driving or drive through or like short travel destinations are, have been pushed toward two people's planning because of covid, which actually was a very good thing. One of the positive things of Covid, I think, and, and, and it made people also realize that long haul travel or flying or flying very often is.

Not a good [: 00:16:00

People are definitely quite a bit for work as well. In short, short, uh, short travels, um, that I expected a little bit less. But I think going forward, I think it's very hard for people not to fly, to be very honest. And that's quite a, a difficult topic to talk about. It's, it's, it's, um, if you are in tourism, it's very hard to only be sustainable and successful sustainment in terms of economic terms, right?

enmark or the Netherlands or [: 00:17:00

And how will that change in the future is a question I, I find very hard to answer cuz I don't think that, I don't think anyone has an answer of that.

Veslemøy: Hmm. Yeah. And, and flying is the big, big elephant in the room. I think, as you say, it's really hard to talk about and it's, it's, it is very hard to avoid, uh, completely. So, no, I'm,

Yeah.

it, it's

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The material comes from a hundred kilometer radius from our first location, for example. Those are all very conscious decisions and we [00:18:00] wanna share and promote those, uh, as well with everybody that is interested in our story. Whether people have arrived by plane or by car is something I, it's very hard for me to control.

That's a decision people have to make themself. Um, and also who am I to say to someone You can do X, Y, or Z. So I think that's a very difficult, uh, difficult topic, but I think there's other ways we can influence and inspire people to make changes. Um, flying I think is a very, very difficult one to make changes un unless Air Airlines start to use bio few, uh, 100%.

urgency I felt when it comes [: 00:19:00

I guess the, [00:20:00] the big adventurers are a bit into the future is quite young yet, but, um, yeah. Do you have any thoughts on

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Uh, so half of my family lives there, so, So that we haven't gone there yet with him and, but that is something I do would like to do of course.

Cuz they haven't met him at some point. So there, yeah, it's, I've been also lucky to, and I, like you said, traveling has shaped to where you are, uh, to some extent. Right. And it opens up your mind to learn about different cultures, to be there, see different sceneries. And I think it's, honestly, it is the best school of life.

how can we still offer that [: 00:21:00

example. You don't have to fly per se to Argentina, uh, to pick an example. There's a lot of things you can learn by working abroad for several years in a different country. So perhaps instead of hopping from one place to the next, every two, three days, uh, it may be a very good education to actually either study for some time abroad or work for times abroad for a long time.

rself. You learn a lot about [: 00:22:00

And in that way it may be more sustainable to use that word, than traveling one week to one country and take your backpack and go to the next one. I think that could be a better. I barely use,

Veslemøy: So, , I would actually, this was just a question I thought about now because I know that you are, you are, you have a passion for, hiking and activities outdoors, and you are kind of working now with the things that you love, right.

Yes.

So, so how, because I also know that, uh, starting a company and all these things that you have to manage and the funding and everything, it's, it's quite a, quite a journey.

ionate about and at the same [: 00:23:00

reinier_1_04-27-2023_100702: I love your questions. Uh, really good. Um, it, it has a, it has been a huge shift to be very honest, cuz I, I worked for 10 plus years in fixed roles for bigger companies. So, you know, monthly paychecks, pretty comfortable in some ways. And then, And then all of a sudden, I, I, I moved from the Netlands to Norway, I become a father, and then I start a new company.

So I thought, oh, why not do all three big li big life changes in one go,

Veslemøy: Why not?

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Veslemøy: Yeah.

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[00:24:00] But, um, so that was, that was challenging in the beginning as well, of course. Um, and, and, and still today to, to have that good work life balance. There's so many things When you are starting up with the company in the states that we are in, you need so many hats that you need to put on, uh, that it's an hour that you need to talk about the potential investor.

Then you go on the site visit to look at a new location. You talk to builders, you try to find reuse material. And then you need to talk about marketing. Then there's exciting podcasts like this one. So there is a lot of different hats that you have to put on and, and that's very exciting, uh, because for me that keeps me going and I think, I truly believe that what we are creating with your experiences has actually.

re's some moments where it's [: 00:25:00

To get that extra energy to keep going. Um, but it's been a year and a half and there has been many times that I could say, all right, you know what? I throw in a towel. I'm done with it. But I didn't. I just said, okay, let's, let's look at it the next day again, or let's look at it next week. Then we make a decision, and then always something happened positive, and then I'll say, okay, cool.

We are, we're on the move. We're, we're, we get some good momentum. And then every time you push the, you push yourself forward, but you also push your goals forward in a way like, I had the idea of having the first location already open, uh, Q1 this year and that didn't work. And then there's two decisions you can make and one that you can say, oh, didn't work.

, so I want things to happen [: 00:26:00

Then it's a good thing because sometimes waiting a little bit or when thing takes longer, it's actually a very good thing. So you're not making shortcuts, you're not getting partners on board that maybe not fit your values, et cetera. So for me, values are very important to myself and to the company. And once you do your, once you have your own company, they kind of intertwine.

It's, it's, it's, it's one. So, um, work life balance. I, I think I still have it. Um, But I, uh, naively thought I would have it maybe a little bit better.

, and what, what is now your [: 00:27:00

reinier_1_04-27-2023_100702: Yeah, I can, I'm gonna answer that if I can also answer my last milestone, which I'm actually very excited about to share. Yeah. Cool. So, so we, since, since I talk a lot about, oh, we wanna do a positive impact, et cetera, and there's a lot of words and I wanted to have a third party do a climate assessment actually, of our company, of our concept already now to see, okay, can we quantify actually our.

Uh, strategy, our focus, how we build it with the amount of reuse material and the clean technology that we use to make the cabin self-sufficient. Like what is actually our impact on the environment? Is it actually positive or is it negative? And if it's negative for how long? And does, is there like a a point where we are becoming positive?

ings are evolving, right? So [: 00:28:00

And they haven't paid me to talk about them on this podcast, by the way. So it's just, I'm just very excited about what they do. And they conducted a climate assessment of two experiences and. You know, long story short, there's different, you know, components that they look at, uh, throughout the life cycle analysis of, of our company.

resting thing is, is that, By: 2027

So we, we obviously [00:29:00] use some new resources and there's gonna be some CO2 emissions with transportation, et cetera. So when we construct, there is an X amount of CO2 that we emission, but because we use clean technology, we use solar panels. So we have green energy that we produce ourself with the cabin. Uh, we also give away at least 1% of our revenue to support local conservation and rerouting initiatives.

And we also help with our hands with that. And there's other components that we do that kind of balanced the, our own emissions out. Uh, and at some point we actually overtake the initial emissions. Uh, that we have produced by actually building and constructing a cabin. Our operational emissions are very small.

% in the next [: 00:30:00

Um, so those are, that was a big milestone, uh, for me actually for a company to, I'm very happy we did that. I'm very excited about the results. There's a lot of things we can improve. Um, one takeaway was, uh, things to improve is actually glass. So windows that's. Is a huge emission. Uh, when, when, when glass is made from, from the scent, it's very hard to, to use reuse glass in a way as well for, for, for installation, et cetera.

So that's a, is a, is a challenge. Um, but that I didn't know about before. I had no idea that glass had such a huge impact that maybe in it's me not knowing, but I didn't know that. So that was very interesting. Um, so that is something I want to continue doing and, um, And, uh, climate Point is a great, great company that does that.

So if anybody was wanting to do climate assessment, I would

Veslemøy: [: 00:31:00

will put that, uh, link in the show notes. That's very interesting and so good that you have done that assessment to, to get the numbers and get it quantified. That's fantastic. Congratulations

on the result as well.

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Um, there's things that we can improve. Uh, there's things maybe from the assessment that can be improved, but the, the bigger picture showed that, okay, we're actually on a good track. Of course with improvements to come.

Veslemøy: Great. So, so

next, next one, then that is the

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So that's amazing. Um, like a perfect fit from a values perspective, but also, uh, other, other components. So we are looking for a little bit more funding to, to get started. Uh, so the biggest milestone is actually finalizing the funding. Uh, together then with then the start of the, the construction, uh, and the build, the building will be constructed in Sigal.

So next to the location that we, uh, that we have agreed with the landowner. And then their goal is to actually, by the end of this year, uh, I give myself a little bit more time to have the first off-grid cabin on the site. And. And invite people that live in Oslo or that are visiting Oslo to come and, and stay a couple of nights with us.

ly relax and disconnect and, [: 00:33:00

It has sort of lakes around. And National Park three. Lamar National Reserve is next door. Andnot in the mountain is next door. So there's a lot of amazing outdoor adventure activities we can do. So the opening of the first one is the, is the next milestone. And if I can add another milestone,

uh, We wanna, we wanna become also a platform for outdoor adventures, uh, whether you stay with us or not.

e in a city that are looking [: 00:34:00

So we are connecting to experiences with local companies, local guides that are already doing that, those adventures. Uh, and we would like to connect more people to do that. Uh, in addition also with organic farms, uh, and ideally farms that practice regenerative farming, uh, that people can learn about that maybe help with har end of the season harvesting, et cetera.

So besides just cool adventures, we also look for other type of, I still call them adventures, but supporting on an organic farm, learning about that, et cetera, all activities that basically improves the wellbeing and happiness of people in the planet, which is our mission.

u, um, fund you or anything, [: 00:35:00

reinier_1_04-27-2023_100702: The easiest way is, uh, actually to go to our website, to experiences.com, um, and all my contact details, my, my private phone number and my email address is on there. Um, so they can just, you know, either call me or send an email and, and, Whether you're interested in just hearing more about it, whether you wanna partner up some way, um, or who would like to have a bigger team at some point.

Uh, we're not there yet, but it's always good to get to know people, um, that believe in what we do and that, uh, are like-minded and share our values. So just reach out. I'm happy to chat.

Veslemøy: Yeah. And I can, uh, recommend going into the website because that's a really, really beautiful website. Is it you in the, in the movie by the way? Or is that,

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right?

Veslemøy: yeah,

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Veslemøy: it's, it is a great movie. You really want [00:36:00] to go exploring when you see that.

So,

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Veslemøy: yes. Shout out to them. Very nice.

Okay. Thank you so much for your time, Reiner. This has been really interesting and as I said, I'm, I'm so much looking forward to, to the, to the rest and hope, I really hope that I will be able to stay in one of your cabins at some point cause that would be

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information.

For

Veslemøy: Yeah.

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Veslemøy: You too. Thank you. ,

ncrete idea with the cabins, [: 00:37:00

As I said, I will share the links to climate point and. Everything else mentioned. And in the episode that you. You useful in the show notes. The very best Of luck to and to experiences i will be cheering from The sideline But that's it for this. this episode until next time Happy Uh, Responsible travels